New polling published today by Best for Britain suggests that some Tory-backing news outlets are out of step with their audience as more readers plan to vote Labour than Conservative at the next General Election.
The poll of more than 15,000 people undertaken by Survation on behalf of Best for Britain showed that despite the domination of Conservative-leaning newspapers in the industry, 37% of people who get their news mostly from print outlets plan to vote Labour at the next election compared to 22% who plan to vote for the Conservative Party.
Readers of the Sun are most likely of these outlets to back Labour with almost four in ten (38%) planning to cast their vote for Starmer compared to one in four (25%) prepared to back Sunak.
For those who get their news from The Daily Telegraph, 31% plan to vote Labour compared to 26% who plan to vote Conservative.
Meanwhile, despite previous protestations from the Daily Express, their readers continue to trend towards Labour, 31% to 25% for the Tories.
The only one of these papers to buck the trend was the Daily Mail whose readers continue to lean Conservative 33% to 26% for Labour
|
Outlet |
Of respondents who said that this outlet was their main source of news, the percentage who said they intend to vote Labour at the next General Election |
Of respondents who said that this outlet was their main source of news, the percentage who said they intend to vote Conservative at the next General Election |
|
The Daily Mail / The Mail on Sunday |
26% |
33% |
|
The Sun / The Sun on Sunday |
38% |
25% |
|
The Daily Telegraph / The Sunday Telegraph |
31% |
26% |
|
The Daily Express / The Sunday Express |
31% |
25% |
When asked if they would consider tactically to secure a change of UK Government, 32% of Daily Mail readers, 39% of Sun readers, 40% of Express readers and 43% of Telegraph readers said that they were ready to do so.
Conversely, just, 17% of Daily Mail readers, 15% of Sun readers, 24% of Express readers and 18% of Telegraph readers said that they would consider voting tactically to save Sunak's administration.
The findings come as a separate poll showed a similar trend among GBnews watchers, where Labour lead by 39% to 28% when “don’t knows” are excluded.
Alarmingly but perhaps not surprisingly, Best for Britain’s own poll found that Reform UK is the most popular choice (30%) among this GBnews audience, the channel where Reform UK’s founder (Nigel Farage), leader (Richard Tice), and sole MP (Lee Anderson), host their own separate shows.
Niall McGourty, Director of Communications at Best for Britain said,
“More voters are choosing to trust their lived experience. They can see the state of public services, they can see the disaster of Brexit and they can see the chaos and scandal at the heart of government and crucially, they can see who is to blame.
“Despite the clear appetite for change, the Tories need to be handed the kind of cataclysmic election defeat that will see them out of power for the foreseeable future. That’s why Best for Britain will be helping voters get it right at GetVoting.org.”
Read our FAQ - ‘When is the next UK general election?’
Methodology
The poll of 15,029 adults for Best for Britain was conducted by Survation between 8th March and 22nd March 2024.
Best for Britain's data tables including breakdowns on respondents preferred news oulets.